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THE GREEN BERETS AT HOME $ ABROAD:
"ANYTHING, ANY TIME, ANY PLACE, ANY HOW"
LIBERATION News Service
"This allows us to practice organizing support
among indlgencus people, which is something we had
to d* in Vietnam and is needed in almost every way."
—-Major General Henry E» Emerson, commander of the JFK Center for Military Assistance
at Ft» Bragg where all Green Berets are trained.
"Anything, any time, any place, any how."
—motto of the Green Berets
NEW YORK (LNS)--"The story of the United States
Army Special Forces [the Green Berets] dates back
at least to the French and Indian Wars, when Major
Robert Rogers formed his 'Rangers' from the New
Hampshire state militia to conduct 'unconventional
warfare* against the Indians," explains "A History
of the Special Forces" in Veritas, the Green Beret's
official magazine.
The historical account never explains what
"unconventional warfare" against the Indians actually
meant. But by the time of the Vietnam war, it had
come to mean everything from recruiting Vietnamese
as informers and training them in counterinsurgency,
to regular search and destroy missions, and pacification programs designed to "win the hearts and
minds" of the people»
Or--as a popular Marine saying goes, "Get the
people by the balls and their hearts and minds will
follow."
And now it seems that the Green Berets are
trying to win the hearts and Binds of poor Third
World and white people in this .country as well.
In at least four separate incidents over the past
few years, Green Beret activities have been discovered.
* * *
"She Green Berets, as they are known today,
were the brain child of John F» Kennedy who fancied
the idea of a world-wide, inconspicuous, anti-communist peace keeping force» They figured very early
in the Vietnam war as some of the first American
"advisors."
"The "Big Picture' films at Fort Dix had told
me all about Special Forces," writes George Smith
in his book POW: Two Years With the Vieteong. "Be
a hero, have fun, make big money» Special Forces
paid you per mission--some places in South America
it was forty dollars a day»
"In the adventure films, Special Forces skied,
blew upvbridges, jumped into previously unexplored
areas, and conducted guerrilla operations in oppressed countries» That was the Special Forces mission:
we would infiltrate (not necessarily with the permission of the government of the country), equip
the people with weapons and train them to fight
guerrilla wars and overthrow unpopular or oppressive
governments. We studied the tactics of Rogers'
Rangers and read Mao Tse-tung's handbook»»»"
•
"Guerrilla warfare is what we volunteered for,"
continues Smith, who joined the Green Berets in 1961.
"nearly everybody had the same attitude: we were
going to be guerrilla fighters and overthrow unpopu-
lar governments. But somewhere along the line, they
turned the whole thing around» 'Since you are
guerrilla fighters and are capable of training people
to fight guerrilla warfare,' they told us, 'you should
be equally capable of training people to combat guerrilla warfare»'
"They wanted us to combat insurgency and of ç •
course the application would be in South Vietnam»».»
The Special Forces were assuming this new counter-
insurgency role, and therefore more teams needed to
go into different countries--Laos, Vietnam, and the
Congo» My group, the Fifth, was initially assigned
to Africa and I thought we were going to the Congo»
In the end we went to Vietnam."
Today the Green Berets are officially out of
Vietnam though who knows how many of the '"civilian"
advisors who remain have a green beret tucked away in
their luggage. And there's little doubt that the
Special Forces are still active in other Southeast
Asian countries»
Michael Klare points out in his book War Without
End, "since 1962, Green Berets have worked with troops
of every Latin American nation except Mexico, Cuba
and Haiti»».Special Forces activity always peaks when
a country is threatened by an insurgent movement»"
It was Special Forces who helped hunt down Che Guevara in the mountains of Bolivia in 1967, for instance.
Pacification is a particularly important aspect
of the Green Berets' work--and a very unsuccessful
program with regard to Vietnam» "By mid-1965," says
"A History of the Special Forces", "the men»»»had assumed wide-ranging tasks» These included assistance
to civilian agencies in dredging canals in enemy-held
territory, improving refugee camps, and the liberation of many enemy-controlled villages»"
However, others do not agree with the rosy picture the Green Berets paint. In the Pentagon Papers
for example, there is a copy of a memorandum sent
to President Kennedy by John Kenneth Galbraith, then
U.S» Ambassador to India.
He says, "There is consequent danger we shall replace the French as the colonial force in the area
(Vietnam) and bleed as the French did. The political
effects of some of the measures which pacification
requires or is believed to require, including the concentration of population, relocation of villages, and
the burning of old villages, may be damaging to those
and especially to Westerners associated with it."
Torture is another tactic the Special Forces use
to bring about pacification although their own "History" neglects to mention it» SP/4 Steven Noetzel,
5th Special Forces Group Augmentation, gave the following testimony at the Winter Soldier Investigation
convened in Detroit in early 19 71» "In January or
February of 1964, I'm not sure exactly which, I witnessed a public display of electrical torture of Vietnamese prisoners»
"A captain there, the commander of the A Team,
had conjured up a system of electrical torture whereby they took a Sony tape recorder, a plain tape recorder with the U-meters on it, and hooked that.up
with some field telephone batteries and a toggle
switch, that was held under the table by a Special
Forces sergeant» Then the captain asked questions
of a prisoner, who was stripped naked, and electrodes
from those field telephones were attached to the back
of his neck, to his armpits, to his genitals, and his
Page 9
LIBERATION News Service
(#517)
April 18, 1973
more,

Copyright belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.

Owner

GI Press Project/Private Collection; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections: Gift of John Mage; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections; Brünn, Harris Watts Collection - Serials and Press Release Soldiers Movements, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam

Copyright belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.

Owner

GI Press Project/Private Collection; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections: Gift of John Mage; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections; Brünn, Harris Watts Collection - Serials and Press Release Soldiers Movements, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam

Full text

THE GREEN BERETS AT HOME $ ABROAD:
"ANYTHING, ANY TIME, ANY PLACE, ANY HOW"
LIBERATION News Service
"This allows us to practice organizing support
among indlgencus people, which is something we had
to d* in Vietnam and is needed in almost every way."
—-Major General Henry E» Emerson, commander of the JFK Center for Military Assistance
at Ft» Bragg where all Green Berets are trained.
"Anything, any time, any place, any how."
—motto of the Green Berets
NEW YORK (LNS)--"The story of the United States
Army Special Forces [the Green Berets] dates back
at least to the French and Indian Wars, when Major
Robert Rogers formed his 'Rangers' from the New
Hampshire state militia to conduct 'unconventional
warfare* against the Indians" explains "A History
of the Special Forces" in Veritas, the Green Beret's
official magazine.
The historical account never explains what
"unconventional warfare" against the Indians actually
meant. But by the time of the Vietnam war, it had
come to mean everything from recruiting Vietnamese
as informers and training them in counterinsurgency,
to regular search and destroy missions, and pacification programs designed to "win the hearts and
minds" of the people»
Or--as a popular Marine saying goes, "Get the
people by the balls and their hearts and minds will
follow."
And now it seems that the Green Berets are
trying to win the hearts and Binds of poor Third
World and white people in this .country as well.
In at least four separate incidents over the past
few years, Green Beret activities have been discovered.
* * *
"She Green Berets, as they are known today,
were the brain child of John F» Kennedy who fancied
the idea of a world-wide, inconspicuous, anti-communist peace keeping force» They figured very early
in the Vietnam war as some of the first American
"advisors."
"The "Big Picture' films at Fort Dix had told
me all about Special Forces" writes George Smith
in his book POW: Two Years With the Vieteong. "Be
a hero, have fun, make big money» Special Forces
paid you per mission--some places in South America
it was forty dollars a day»
"In the adventure films, Special Forces skied,
blew upvbridges, jumped into previously unexplored
areas, and conducted guerrilla operations in oppressed countries» That was the Special Forces mission:
we would infiltrate (not necessarily with the permission of the government of the country), equip
the people with weapons and train them to fight
guerrilla wars and overthrow unpopular or oppressive
governments. We studied the tactics of Rogers'
Rangers and read Mao Tse-tung's handbook»»»"
•
"Guerrilla warfare is what we volunteered for"
continues Smith, who joined the Green Berets in 1961.
"nearly everybody had the same attitude: we were
going to be guerrilla fighters and overthrow unpopu-
lar governments. But somewhere along the line, they
turned the whole thing around» 'Since you are
guerrilla fighters and are capable of training people
to fight guerrilla warfare,' they told us, 'you should
be equally capable of training people to combat guerrilla warfare»'
"They wanted us to combat insurgency and of ç •
course the application would be in South Vietnam»».»
The Special Forces were assuming this new counter-
insurgency role, and therefore more teams needed to
go into different countries--Laos, Vietnam, and the
Congo» My group, the Fifth, was initially assigned
to Africa and I thought we were going to the Congo»
In the end we went to Vietnam."
Today the Green Berets are officially out of
Vietnam though who knows how many of the '"civilian"
advisors who remain have a green beret tucked away in
their luggage. And there's little doubt that the
Special Forces are still active in other Southeast
Asian countries»
Michael Klare points out in his book War Without
End, "since 1962, Green Berets have worked with troops
of every Latin American nation except Mexico, Cuba
and Haiti»».Special Forces activity always peaks when
a country is threatened by an insurgent movement»"
It was Special Forces who helped hunt down Che Guevara in the mountains of Bolivia in 1967, for instance.
Pacification is a particularly important aspect
of the Green Berets' work--and a very unsuccessful
program with regard to Vietnam» "By mid-1965" says
"A History of the Special Forces", "the men»»»had assumed wide-ranging tasks» These included assistance
to civilian agencies in dredging canals in enemy-held
territory, improving refugee camps, and the liberation of many enemy-controlled villages»"
However, others do not agree with the rosy picture the Green Berets paint. In the Pentagon Papers
for example, there is a copy of a memorandum sent
to President Kennedy by John Kenneth Galbraith, then
U.S» Ambassador to India.
He says, "There is consequent danger we shall replace the French as the colonial force in the area
(Vietnam) and bleed as the French did. The political
effects of some of the measures which pacification
requires or is believed to require, including the concentration of population, relocation of villages, and
the burning of old villages, may be damaging to those
and especially to Westerners associated with it."
Torture is another tactic the Special Forces use
to bring about pacification although their own "History" neglects to mention it» SP/4 Steven Noetzel,
5th Special Forces Group Augmentation, gave the following testimony at the Winter Soldier Investigation
convened in Detroit in early 19 71» "In January or
February of 1964, I'm not sure exactly which, I witnessed a public display of electrical torture of Vietnamese prisoners»
"A captain there, the commander of the A Team,
had conjured up a system of electrical torture whereby they took a Sony tape recorder, a plain tape recorder with the U-meters on it, and hooked that.up
with some field telephone batteries and a toggle
switch, that was held under the table by a Special
Forces sergeant» Then the captain asked questions
of a prisoner, who was stripped naked, and electrodes
from those field telephones were attached to the back
of his neck, to his armpits, to his genitals, and his
Page 9
LIBERATION News Service
(#517)
April 18, 1973
more,